1. The words 'PARKER~HALE LIMITED, BIRMINGHAM' stamped in a line, read from the left-hand side, on the barrel immediately in front of the backsight. Note that the hyphen is not '-', but '~'.
2. The serial number is stamped in 2.5mm-high numbers very close to the wood immediately where the breech meets the wood on the left-hand side of the barrel.
3. Underneath the breech [take it out of the wood], Birmingham proof house stamps of crossed sceptres with date letters and numbers, and the designation .577cal - 3.5 DRAMS.
4. ON the knox form, level with the nipple - Crown over BP - read looking up the barrel.
4. The Parker-Hale cartouche to be found stamped into the rear right-hand side of the stock - 3" from the butt-plate - PARKER-HALE LTD - in a circular stamp that looks like the base of a cartridge.
This is a rough guide to serial numbers, until David Minshall answers email -
0 - 9000 total gun is Parker-Hale manufacture.
90001 - 14000 - Parker-Hale barrels only.
Above 14001 - totally Italian and should therefore have Italian proof marks as usual - GVT, PN, date letters BF onward in a little box, Made in Italy, Gardone val Trompia etc.
Please note - VERY important!!!!
MANY original Parker-Hale Musketoons were actually made and sold as wall-hangers - smooth-bored and with the underneath of the barrel drilled through to render them unfireable. There is NOTHING to show this without taking the barrel out of the wood and looking - the hole can be anything between and 1/8th to a 1/4" diameter into the breech from the six-o'clock position.
Needless to say, trying to shoot one of these is a recipe for disaster - PLEASE ensure that yours is NOT one of them.
tac